Hello, I didn't even know this forum exsisted until I watched a short positive PR video the other day, and noticed it in the credits.
I honestly haven't had too much of a chance to poke around in this forum yet to see what it's all about. But I do regognize several user names from other forums, so it must be a good place! Regardless, hope to get to know some of you very soon, as I'll be over here fairly frequently.
Anyway -
Hello! My name is Nikki and I have been into dog training & behavior, health and nutrition for as long as I can remember.
I was the type of kid that would bring home stray dogs afterschool and beg to keep them all. I started out being an obsessed child, a grade-school dog walker, then became a vet assistant, vet tech, dog daycare 'supervisor', then just started rescuing and fostering dogs time to time. (Now I work in the Motorsports Industry, so dogs are just a hobby/passion of mine)
I got into this particular breed several years ago with a foster dog named Damien that was found in a auto wrecking yard in South Seattle. He was a beautiful black brindle, and 'may' have been mixed with Ambull.. He inspired me to learn more about the lovely breed, the more I learned the more I was intrigued to get involved. I fell in love with the breed as a whole, and spent heaps of time doing my research on bully breeds. I currently have 3 wonderful dogs in my home.
Toda -My sweet as syrup true black APBT rescue/neutered boy, therapy dog, bed warmer, snuggle buddy, (Currently training for WP/Obedience/Agility)
Takuma - My UKC show dog, the love of my life (blue male)
Senna - "Little Miss Senna, the princess, drama queen, firecracker happy little girl" My beautiful lovely red fawn/black mask foster girl that I cannot entirely decide whether or not to keep for myself.
This is what we do:
-Work with our dogs in obedience at weekly classes (hopefully going to at least earn CD's this upcoming year)
-Introducing the dogs to agility and weightpull (for fun of course!)
-Therapy Work in our community
-Conformation Ring
-Breed education & awareness in our community
-Scootering (if you haven't tried it with your dogs, you should!)
-Write letters to fight BSL
We (Myself and my S.O. Brandon) enjoy taking the dogs hiking and swimming on a weekly basis. We are most definatly the 'outdoorsy' type Although it's tough for us to transport the whole crew around, they don't fit so well in our 2 door sport compacts. We are in the process of aquiring more suitable dog vehicle i.e. 4Runner, Element etc.
We bought our first house last November with the dogs in mind, across the street from 2 parks, an elementary and an 'almost' fully fenced baseball field directly across the street where we do most of our training outside of class. Our dogs great representitives of the breed, and are VERY loved/spoiled, like they should be.
We are also in process of starting the 'Pawsitive Pitbull' drill team in Washington state. We have a couple people interested in joining in, but really need to find some concrete dedicated people with stable, well trained dogs to join in. (off-leash heelers a must) We will be practicing once a month at our training center in Tukwila.. So, if you are interested let me know! We will be doing meet the breed booths, and having presentations/shows at elementary schools/couty fairs etc.
Anyway, I can try posting some photos up of the dogs soon.
Hope to meet some great people here!
edited to add photos